I Might Have Dreamed This

For a short time after
the rape, I found I could

move things. Energy birds
swarmed from my brain.

With a witch's sense
of abandoned physics,

I set dolls rolling.
Back and forth. Like a

breathing sound.

Using only my night-powered
eyes, I pushed the lamp

to the dresser's edge.
I buried the mirrors

in avalanches of freshly
laundered underpants.

I never slept.

I did all these things
lying down.

From One Red Eye by Kirsten Dierking. Copyright © 2001 by Kirsten Dierking. Used by permission of Holy Cow! Press. All rights reserved.